Tuesday, February 21, 2012

This post is authored by John Funk, the Educational Programs Manager for Excelligence
Learning Corporation and a clinical instructor at the University of Utah.

How
and Why Do We Teach Logic and Reasoning to Young Children?

When my oldest son was about 15, we were having a ‘discussion’ about something
he wanted to do for which I had refused permission. As things were
becoming just a little bit too emotional, I remember saying to him, “I’ve never
been the parent of a 15-year-old before. I’m trying to do what I think is
right, but there are no directions for how to do this. I’m sorry
you have to be the test case.” My son stopped and stared at me --
and then said, “I never thought about that. Now I understand why you
screw up sometimes.”

While
that was not the answer I wanted to hear, my comment and his response brought
some logic and reasoning into the discussion, and the emotions
disappeared. That is usually what logic and reasoning can do for a
situation. When you are having an emotional disagreement with someone,
not much gets accomplished while emotions are in the way. When everyone
has calmed down, logic and reasoning usually reappear, and a thoughtful
discussion can occur. I feel very strongly that if we don’t help children
to develop these critical skills, they will not be able to function
successfully and truly get along with other people.

The basis of logic and reasoning is the ability to search for clues, determine
what makes sense, and make decisions based on concrete information.
Forcing children to know the correct answer and be prepared to regurgitate it
on a test does not develop the thinking that creates logic and reasoning.
However, allowing children to explore with materials to make decisions about
the timing and organization of a project, and, most important, to make mistakes
will create the resilience that children need to be logical thinkers.

The
Excelligence Product Development Team knows I like open-ended products that
promote divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is when we take one
idea and go many different directions with it. From one concept or
product, we can get many different outcomes or possibilities. Think about
our Biocolor or Liquid Watercolor. With one of these products, a child can
create a myriad of projects. The possibilities are endless. Some of
my favorite teaching products are blocks, dough, crayons and paints. I
like them because they provide endless opportunities to promote learning, and
they promote divergent thinking.

I
also like products that promote convergent thinking. Convergent
thinking is using many different ideas or data points to lead to one necessary
conclusion. Think of all the products we have to help children learn the
alphabet. Identifying the letters is the ultimate goal, but there are many
different pathways that can lead to that knowledge. As we provide more
products for supporting curriculum standards, it is important that our products
allow the child and teacher to explore different avenues to help the child
learn each standard skill.

My
son, who is now 35, said to me the other day when we were discussing his 10
year-old daughter, “It is really hard being a parent. Sometimes you just
don’t know what to do.” That comment brought us full-circle and
reaffirmed to me that justice is alive and well in our lives, and I suggested
that he discuss it with his daughter. Hopefully, logic and reasoning will
find its way into every generation of parenting.

It seems that bullying is standard practice for some of our
students these days.The spectrum runs
from just being obnoxiously rude to physical assault.Unfortunately, special education students are
far too often the targets of this abuse.Do you have procedures or a program in place to protect your students?

It is fine to provide students with the very best academic
program possible, but if schools fail to teach their students to get along with
one another, stand up for the weak, and promote fairness and equality, have we
really done our jobs as educators?

Not as many parents are doing a good job in this area.Not as many students attend church and follow
religious principals which might prevent this type of abuse.It is one more job that has fallen on the
shoulders of teachers, administrators, and counselors.That may not be fair, but it is the reality
of the situation.

Unfortunately for disabled students, bullies actively seek
out those who are different in any way and especially those who are least able
to defend themselves.A first step in
any school is to make it known to the entire population that bullying will not
be tolerated.However, if you only use
negative consequences to fight bullies, you may not be as effective as you
think.In fact, it could work against
you.Some bullies will get a rush from
the attention and the risk of being caught and punished.

Don’t misunderstand me.I believe we should monitor those who tend to bully others, catch them
in the act as often as possible, and punish them for their cowardly acts.Were they adults, many of them would end up
in jail on assault charges.

I just believe that you also need a positive program to
teach students tolerance and the joy of giving.When regular students bond with special education students, it produces
positive results for both groups.Special education students get included in many activities they might
otherwise miss, and regular education students learn how to take responsibility
for others.They get attention in
positive rather than negative ways.

Unfortunately, we have to be aware that there is bullying
even within the ranks of special education.Students who are physically stronger than others may try to take
advantage of their weaker classmates.Good social skills simply need to be taught to all of our students.

Several companies have packaged programs for dealing with
bullying.If you find one that fits your
school, it may save you a lot of time and energy, but don’t feel that you have
to go out and purchase a program.You
can develop your own.

I believe that every school should have a strong academic
program for every student, regardless of the student’s abilities.I also believe that it has become imperative
that schools teach proper social skills.A good place to start is to teach regular education students to treat
those who may have disabilities with respect.Not only will that help to protect our special education students, it
will make all of our students better people.

Grant Info:

Grant Name:U-Act Grants

Funded By:Red Robin Foundation

Description:U-ACT, which stands for Unbridled Acts,
or random acts of kindness, is a character-building initiative specifically for
grades K-8, which aims to inspire and encourage students to be kind to others.
The goal of the Red Robin Foundation U-ACT Program is to create a sense of
neighborliness inside and outside of school settings and eliminate bullying
through Unbridled Acts. Through monthly monetary grants, the Red Robin Foundation
U-ACT Program honors schools that exemplify kindness to others and show support
in their community through Unbridled Acts. If your class or school is between
the grades of K-8 and you want to implement a program to encourage kindness
among your students, and receive a grant for doing so, then you can submit a
request! Simply come up with an idea of how you would encourage and implement
kindness in your class or at your school and send it to the Red Robin
Foundation.

Program Areas:At-Risk/Character, Community
Involvement/Volunteerism, Disabilities, General Education, Math, Reading,
Science/Environment, Social Studies, Special Education

Monday, February 13, 2012

I'm Julie Fraser the senior buyer for Achievement Products
and I watched the Super Bowl last weekend, along with the millions of others
who tuned in. Though I had no particular allegiance to either of the teams
playing, the game was certain to be a big topic of conversation over the next
few days and I didn’t want to feel left out. Even at an age where I should know
better, I want to fit in around the water cooler!

The desire to fit in is part of us at any age, but of course
it is felt most strongly by teenagers. Over the past couple of years I have
participated at conferences and expos focused on children with special needs,
and I continually heard from the therapists and special education teachers of
teens with special needs that, while those teens benefit from the same type of
help and support directed to younger children, it is vital to offer this help
and support in a way that recognizes the maturing interests and expanding
horizons of the teens placed in their care. And at Achievement Products, we took that
message to heart.

We reviewed our catalog’s content with a number of
therapists who helped us identify products ideally suited to support teens in
the following areas:

We invite you to take a look at our entire teen collection,
and we want to hear from you at this ‘Water Cooler’ that is our blog site!Please share what resources, services or
products have helped the teens in your care to succeed as they grow, mature,
and expand their horizons.

In my last
post I discussed the different disability levels that might be assigned to
students.These levels were:none, mild, moderate, and severe.Those levels make it more difficult for the
classroom teacher to address the specific disability of each student.Why?It would be difficult enough if a teacher had only one disabled student,
or even a group of students with the same disability.That’s not the case.Most teachers have to contend with several disabled
students at the same time.Most often
those students have different disabilities, and even when two of their students
have the same disability, those disabilities are often diagnosed to be at
different levels.

This makes
many special education classrooms much like the old one-room schools. Teachers doing their jobs properly might be
teaching different subjects at different levels with different materials.Most regular education English, math, or
science teachers would tell you that such a task is impossible--- and even if
it were possible, not to expect any great results.

That is why
special education classes are often small and a teacher’s aide is found in the
classroom alongside the teacher.Small
class size and extra personnel units make special education very
expensive.A huge amount of money is
often spent for very small academic, emotional, or physical gains.Specialized materials and equipment are also
expensive and run up the cost of special education services.

How could
the cost be so high when there are such a small percentage of disabled students
in the United States?I think you might
be surprised.At last count, the U.S.
had 6,483,000 disabled students between the ages of 3 and 21 years of age.That was more than 13.2% of the total
enrollment.Of those, 95% were served by
public schools.

Listed are
the thirteen types of disabilities and the approximate number of disabled
students in each category:

Specific learning disabilities – 2,476,000

Speech or language impairments – 1,426,000

Intellectual disabilities – 478,000

Emotional disabilities – 420,000

Hearing impairments – 78,000

Orthopedic impairments – 70,000

Other health impairments – 659,000

Visual impairments – 29,000

Multiple disabilities – 130,000

Deaf-blindness – 2,000

Autism – 336,000

Traumatic brain injury – 26,000

Developmental delay – 354,000

In the old
days, many of these students would never have gone to public school.Some of them would have even been locked away
in their own homes.Fortunately, we live
in a country that doesn’t allow that.We
know that special education is expensive, but we also believe it is the right
of every child to get a free education.That education can help many of these disabled students become
productive citizens, but we need our best teachers, our best materials, and our
best equipment on the job helping these students to make all the progress they
can.

Grant Info:

Grant Name:Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation Educational Grants

Funded By:Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation

Description:Giving on a national basis, with emphasis on
areas of company operations; giving also to national organizations to support
programs designed to advance the independence, productivity, and community of
young people with disabilities. Special emphasis is directed toward programs
designed to have a national scope and impact, with preference to those that are
inclusive of youth with and without disabilities. No grants to individuals, or
for endowments, capital campaigns, equipment or devices for individual users,
fund raising events, controversial social or political issues, or local
activities without national impact; no loans. No support for religious
organizations not of direct benefit to the entire community, intermediary
organizations, fraternal, labor, political, or lobbying organizations,
discriminatory organizations, or individual schools or school districts.

Program Areas:Community Involvement/Volunteerism,
Disabilities, General Education, Math, Reading, Science/Environment, Social
Studies, Special Education